Oceans are dying

Canadian scientists of Memorial University have brought new data that shows that at some deep water species have plumetter by about 98% in a generation, meeting the criteria to be classified as critically endangered.

This stuation is blamed in bottom-trawling techniques that literally break havoc in oceanic floors, destroying the bases that allow for fishes to live and reproduce.

They ask for an inmediate moratorium in bottom-trawling fishing as the only way to allow the seas to recover.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4581428.stm




Seafloor before and after bottom-trawlers' passage

Check also http://www.savethehighseas.org/


Edited by Maju

One would think that with the near-total depletion of cod and other fish stocks (due to overfishing mainly by factory ships) that resulted in the devastation of coastal communities in Qu�bec's Gasp�sie and the Maritime provinces whose effects have lasted even until today, people would have learned their lesson and become more wise in managing conserving the fragile maritime resources. Canada's experience with commercial fishing demonstrates a clear example of what unregulated commercial fishing can do to an economy and an eco-system.

Yes, it's a shame.  A kind of tragedy of the commons type example, no one answers for it's destruction (except governments) so there's no incentive to conserve.  Global stocks also probably just can't keep up with demand regardless of how you do it, that's why fish farms will be the wave of the future.

Maju, don't feel bad about eating farm raised fish, if anything you should and give them the monetary help they need to expand.  Every fish you eat from a fish farm does it's part to promote sustainable seafood production.

I agree with Cywr: fish and seafood farms are also part of the problem, they can be very destructive and polluting. I just don't eat fish or seafood anymore... at least normally (sometimes I forget ).

The only solution (though it may well be too late) would be to restrict global fishing to a truly sustainable ammount, banning all kind of abusive techniques... but that would require a World government, like so many other global problems.

Anyhow even at the local level governments are uninterested in sea protection: you don't see it, so it doesn't matter.

The process may have been perfected by Canadian (?) cod fishermen, but its used the world over for all sorts of fish.

I eat fish, i have to as my diet would be crap otherwise, i think i have a sort of hunter gather diet as it consists of grains, nuts, seeds, meat and fish pretty much.

They are all endangered right now: anchovy captures this year in Europe have been pathetic and all that the European Comission has been able to do is to grant a biological stop of 6 months. That's all!

My attitude right now is to hell with the fishing industry! It's surely not the fault of fishermen only (governments should have acted) but anyhow fishing industry is finished, so let's try to at least save the fish.

(And to improve your diet eat vegetables and fruit, not fish).

New Zealand have dealt with the problem very well and I have no idea why other communites and nations have not done the same.

They have implemented large no fishing zones, where trawlers are barred from going.  These areas flourish with marine life and cause an over spill into the areas that can be trawled, thereby perpetuating a sustainable source of seafood, which incidentally, I love.

Originally posted by Genghis Originally posted by Cywr Farmed fish isn't completly clean either. Neither are land farms, but it's better than ripping up the sea floor.

Some fish farms destroy coastal enviroment what also damages the ocean life a lot. Farmed fish, due to massification and who knows what, are much more likely to develope diseases that then are propagated to thei wild cousins. The "remedy" is to use massively chemicals medicines, which destroy the area and are also a potential risk to our health.

Of course that land farming is also very problematic but I'm bound to eat or die.